Neurophysiological findings among workers exposed to organic solvents.

Workers exposed to organic solvents often complain of symptoms indicating central or peripheral nervous system effects. Neurophysiological methods offer a sensitive and noninvasive way to study early impairment in the nervous system. The present communication is a review of neurophysiological studies done at the Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki. The studies concern workers occupationally exposed to various solvents. Both encephalopathic and neuropathic findings were frequent, especially among patients with solvent poisoning. Certain exposure-response relationships emerged when the prevalence of abnormal electroencephalograms was studied in various groups of workers exposed to different levels of solvents.